Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

While his father, a Lonsdale community icon, and partner, a renowned fashion designer, counted their illegal profits, McDowell, 46, cashed a paycheck, and when the two masterminds got caught, McDowell got blamed.

On Thursday, McDowell declared himself 'thoroughly embarrassed' for his role in a six-year illegal gambling operation crafted and controlled by father Clarence McDowell Jr. and fashion designer Marcus Hall as the younger McDowell stood before Chief U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan for sentencing.

It's been Varlan's task this month to size up each man and decide his fate in the lottery-based numbers game. Hall, who lived a double life as a criminal and feted success-from-adversity figure, racked up 33 months. Clarence McDowell, a doting grandfather who mentored young black men and promoted community events in Lonsdale while using the neighborhood as a base for illegal gambling, received 18 months.

Maurece McDowell's attorney, John Eldridge, asked Varlan to grant his client probation, arguing the younger McDowell's father and Hall cooked up the gambling racket and reaped its profits while McDowell received a weekly paycheck of $500 to $900 for handling the day-to-day operations.

'He was not an owner,' Eldridge said. 'He did not get a share of the profits. You could almost say his father and Marcus Hall took advantage of him.'

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Marie Svolto countered the younger McDowell played a key role, particularly in running the slate of Lonsdale businesses through which his father laundered money.

'The operation succeeded because of his involvement,' Svolto said.

Varlan sentenced McDowell to 10 months, five of which will be served behind bars and the other five under house arrest.

'The (sentencing) guidelines calculated in this case took into account this defendant's lesser involvement. … Probation would not adequately reflect the seriousness of the offense,' Varlan said.

A convenience store in a Lonsdale strip mall built with federal empowerment zone money and owned by Clarence McDowell and managed by his son served as the base of operation for the gambling operation. It employed dozens of sellers in a separate building and runners who ferried tickets and money between that building and the Lonsdale Market & Deli. The IRS shut it down with raids last June.

Read or Share this story: https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2016/06/23/last-of-three-defendants-in-lonsdale-gambling-operation-sentenced/91013968/